Process of making gas.



PATENTED MAR. 24, 1908.

L. P. LOWE. PROCESS OF MAKING GAS.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 23, 1905.

' nib slum/whoa: z 64 7 wuwwow v I rying out the process, t

lzed by steam through a pipe 15. Air for UNITED STATES PAg -NT OFFICE.

LEON P. LOWE, OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.

'PROCESS OF MAKING GAS.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be'it known that I, LEON P. LOWE, a citizen of the United States, residing at San Francisco, in the county of San Francisco and State of California, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Proc: esses of Making Gas, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a process of manufacturing gas, the object of the invention being to rovide a process by which gas can be manu actured with greater economy than heretofore.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 is a side elevation of an ap aratus used in care generator being own 1n vertical section; Fig. 2 is a plan view thereof.

Referring to the drawing, 1 represents the casing of a generating chamber, the main portion of which is divided by arches 2 into three compartments 3, 4, 5, eachcompartment supporting refractory material 6. The uppermost compartment 5 connects with a flue 7, closed by a valve 8 and leading to the mouth of a stack 9. The lowest compartment 3 connects with a passage 10 formed by a partition 11 and a rotective wall 12, the latter forming the bac of a coking and combustion chamber 13, said passage connecting with said chamber over the top of said wall. Said coking and combustion chamber 13 is provided with a door 27. for feeding the material to be coked and with the lower door 28, shown in dotted lines forremoving said material from said chamber. Into the top of said coking and combustion chamber 13 discharges an oil pipe 14, the oil being atomcombustion is also supplied by a pipe 16 controlled by a valve 17.

Into the top of the uppermost compartment 5 discharges a steam pipe 18 and into the top of the intermediate compartment 4 discharges an oil pipe 19, the oil being atom-- ized by steam through a pipe 20. From the top of the lowest compartment 3 leads a gas outlet ipe 21, which leads to a washer 24 from w ich the gas passes by a seal-25 to the usual scrubbers, purifiers, etc. i

The coking chamber 13 having been charged with the material to be cokcd, the first ste of the process is the heating stage,

chemical .candle power, which introduced through the in whic '1 oil v at the burner 14 is burned by means of air admitted through the pipe 16. i This combustion is continued a considerable ,1

Specification of Letters Patent. Application filed August 23,

time, the products of combustion impinging against the protective wall 12,- passing down the passage 10 and then up through the several chambers 3, 4, 5, in successionheating the refractory material 6therein and escaping by the flue 7 The refractory material. having been sufliciently heated for the purpose'of gas making, are closed, and the gas mences.

In order to understand the natureof this invention, it is to be remembered that when oil is passed over sufliciently highly heated refractory material it is broken down and converted into solid carbon in the form of lamp black and into gaseous roducts of varying luminosity, the degree 0 luminosity of the gases so produced var ing with the heat applied thereto. If the heat be sufficiently great, the resulting gases may be principally non-luminous gases such as hydrogen and marsh gas. As the temperature of the refractory material falls the oil is not so highly decomposed, but gases of greater making stage comare produced. That is to say, in the rocess of gas making, by which oil is partly roken down into solid carbonaceous substances the first gases which are produced when the gas making stage commences, are of very low increases as the gas making stage progresses. All these gases are, however, coinmingled in the gas holder so that a substantially uniform gas results. However, by my present process the gas produced is substantially uniform as it is duced. The princi al advantage of the is that gas is produce more economically and with less waste of oil converted into solid the valves 8 and 17' complexity and greater luminosity carbon than with such heretofore existing processes. Therefore, after the preliminar stage of heating has been carried on to a su ficient extent, the air blast isshut off by the valve 17 and the valve 8 leading to stack 9 is closed.

Steam is introduced throu h and oil is introduced throng the, pipes 19 and 14. The steam introduced through the pipe 18 is superheated by the refractory material in chamber 5 and mixes with the oil the pipe 18,

ipe 19 combining with that portion of the oil broken down into solid carbon to form hydrogen and carbonic oxid gases, a portion of the oil forming a rich fixed oil gas. At the same time the oi passes through the pipe 14, together with a certain oil (gassing downward, and the resulting gas 1s awn off by the .pipe 21, being a gas of substantially the requlred degree of luminosity. As the temperature of the refractory material in chamber 3 fails, less solid carbon is formed and the candle power of the gas increases and the amount of oil passed through the pipe 19 may be gradually diminished in order to prevent too rich a gas being formed. By this means the luminosity of the gas produced is maintained substantially uniform. Thecoke can be withdrawn from time to time by the door 28.

Inferior modifications of my invention consist in omitting the introduction of steam, either in the'updr aft, or in the downdraft, or

' in the passage of oil through the generator.

I claim 1. The process of manufacturing gas which consists in passing products of combustion of oil and air entirely through a chamber containing loosely piled refractory material, to highly heat said refractory material then excluding the air and passing the oil partly through the chamber and the re-. fractory material therein in the same direction as in the heating, stage, and simultaneously passing steam and oil through the chamber and the refractory material in the opposite direction and drawing off the generated gases together, substantially as described.

2. The rocess of manufacturing gas which consists in passing products of combustion of oil and air entirely through a chamber containing loosely piled refractory material, to highly heat said refractory material then excluding the air and passing the oil partly through the chamber and the refractory material therein in the same direction as in the heating stage, and simultaneously passing in the opposite direction steam through part of the refractory material to superheat the same, and oil commingled with the steam so superheated through refractory material in the chamber and drawing off the generated gases together, substantially as described.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

L. P. LOWE.

l/Vitnesses: v

FRANoEs M. WRIGHT, BESSIE GORFINKEL. 

